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George Henry Borrow

George Borrow

Lavengro: The Classic Account of Gypsy Life in Nineteenth-Century England Paperback – December 1, 1991

by George Henry Borrow (Author)

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Gypsies appeared in Europe in great numbers in the 15th century. The term "Gypsy" evolved from their claim that they were Egyptian by descent. (It is now believed these itinerant Caucasoid peoples originated in India.) Who they were, what they were like, and how they lived in England are the focal points of George Borrow's 19th-century literary and anthropological classic LAVENGRO.

Print length

569 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Dover Pubns
Publication date

December 1, 1991
Dimensions

5.5 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches
ISBN-10

0486269159
ISBN-13

978-0486269153
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dover Pubns (December 1, 1991)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 569 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0486269159
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0486269153
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,117,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #82,319 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- #259,151 in Social Sciences (Books)

Customer Reviews:
15 ratings

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3 star		11%
2 star		11%
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Top reviews from the United States

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william wilson,william wilson,william wilson,willi

An esoteric but worthwhile read.

Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2019

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Interesting and eccentric author.

Helpful

bookworm

good information.

Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2015

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Quite interesting, good information.

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L. barthel

A trip back in time and it's my favorite comfort food reading.

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2013

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There are so many details of life in the mid 1800's that take me back like a time machine to a place I've never been. A thrill really.

2 people found this helpful

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Sasha

entertaining, educational, particularly memorable

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 1998

This book (including Romany Rye, the sequel) is not an example of high-minded literature, but rather the account of Borrow's early life, and the beginning of his adventures. All escapades take place in the United Kingdom, of which he is admirably patriotic. As a character, he is actually somewhat quiet; but the situations and especially people he meets are both tangibly real (to a degree that I find unusual in a work of that time) and outlandish by any standards, Victorian (?) England's or ours. Above all the stories were fascinating, and are stamped permanently in my memory.
While one needs a taste for the "philological" to enjoy and understand these adventures, they are still only marvelous anecdotes, including brilliant character portraits and memorable descriptions.
One small quality that I appreciated, particularly since he writes so much of his experiences with Gypsies, is that Borrow is probably less rascist than many of his contemporaries seem to b! e.
By the way: while The Bible in Spain has the same qualities as Lavengro and Romany Rye, it is not nearly as well written; he indulges his taste for dry ramblings much more, and the interesting stories seem almost arbitrary in when he tells them and when he ends them; were he still alive, there would be much that I'd like him to elaborate on.
If anyone can tell me about his other writings (I have the impression that the quality can vary) I'd really appreciate some advice through email.

16 people found this helpful

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John L. Murphy

Among the English gypsies, mid-19c

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2005

I read an older edition of this reprint, written in the middle of the 19c by a polymathic, apparently largely self-educated, English wandering scholar who popularized his adventures, usually among the gypsies in England (as here) and later in Spain, as well as among the native Welsh. This book suits a lazy, digressive, and leisurely pace. Borrow cannot obtain a position in the military due to his father's lack of clout and little cash, so he goes to London to try to make his fortune by various legit and shady schemes, among them the shell game, publishing, and being a writer for hire. Outrageous coincidences occur in Dickensian style as he wanders about, running in to the same small circle of cronies over and over to instructive effect!

I cannot tell where Lavengro ends and Romany Rye begins, but by the subtitle of the first, "The Priest, the Scholar, and the Gypsy," I assume this refers to Borrow's conversations with these folks on philological, historical, and theological topics. The latter part of the work finds Borrow trying to pursue a trade as a smith while living in a dingle, courting a refugee lass from a pair of pugilistic thieves--whom Borrow tries to teach Armenian as a covert way with which to communicate with her--and carrying on with a very freethinking lifestyle against authority, very early Victorian style.

No dates and few locales are given, so all of this happens in sort of post-Regency vacuum. Borrow in that long-winded, autodidactic, eccentric manner latches on to a hobby-horse and rides it as long as he wishes, but he manages to be provocative, entertaining, and a wonderful companion, probably more so on paper than he might be in person! His obsessive determination to teach an ex-workhouse girl Armenian declensions and conjugations strikes me as either wonderfully tongue-in-cheek or dismayingly oblivious. The pleasure of the book is that I cannot decide which.

6 people found this helpful

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Shirley Schwartz

An autobiographical novel of late nineteenth century England

Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2005

George Borrow lived in England during the nineteenth century. This book and it's sequel "The Romany Rye" are somewhat autobiographical in the way that "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" is autobiographical about James Joyce. This book is also not a novel in its true form. It's more a vivid description of the English countryside and what it was like during Borrow's lifetime. The book and its sequel were not very well received when first published because English people did not want to read about gypsies and the gypsy lifestyle. Borrow's black psyche comes through in these pages quite clearly as he tries to explain his life and the problems that he encounters. As I read the book, I felt it was like seeing a real man's life, as it surely was. There are three main characters in the book - a scholar, a Gypsy and a Priest. Borrow takes quite a kick at Roman Catholicism and the pomp and circumstance of that religion in his book. But even with that his Priest is a shown as a very good man trying to bring his message to the masses. I did not read the next book "The Romany Rye", but this one was pretty good as a stand-alone.

4 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Literary buff's joy

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2003

I thoroughly enjoyed Borrow and look forward to meeting this character in heaven, where I believe he and Tolkien are having a great time talking philology. This is one of those books that, when you are done reading, you feel that you have made a friend and you miss him now that it's over. I am eager to read his other writings.

9 people found this helpful

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D. L. Ashcroft-nowicki

An old favourite of mine and bought because my own copy had ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2016

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An old favourite of mine and bought because my own copy had fallen to pieces with use.. Borrow was an extraordinary man. He spoke many languages and had an open mind that able to appreciate the Romany Way of life and portray it with honesty and truthfulness.. Borrow wrote on many subjects and although his style and his use of language are now dated and unfamiliar, to those of us who know his works his books are a source of delight and knowledge of a time long past. I am proud of my touch of Romany Blood and spent my early teens playing with the children of one particular Family who regularly camped on the moorlands of the Wirral Peninsula in the UK during 1940/44.

One person found this helpful

Krevelen, D.W. Van

Very bad reprint of an excellent book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2013

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This reprint has been scanned and printed by Amazon from an unmentioned earlier edition.
Basic typographical rules with respect to spacing for new chapters have not been observed: all the text has been stacked; summary catchwords at the beginning of each chapter have not been recognized as special text parts, and are incomprehensible now.
The page margins have been minimized, apparently to to increase the length of the lines; this makest the text difficult to read because of the line length, while the book cannot easily be opened at the binding.
A contents table is missing.
All the basic principles of book publishing have been ignored in this inferior production. A missed opportunity to make a masterpiece
available.

2 people found this helpful

RichES

Lavengro

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2014

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Pleased to be able to obtain a second hand copy of this rare book,which I thought would help with background reading into my own family history.

noname

Two Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2016

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Print much to small book difficult to handle

One person found this helpful

Tim Venables

A very interesting and quirky book but I do wish ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 15, 2014

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A very interesting and quirky book but I do wish that it had an appendix which explains the meaning of the many Romany words, most of which are not in a standard concise dictionary.

One person found this helpful

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